Into the Past: What's Left For the GBA?

When the DS Lite arrives, what will happen with the Game Boy? The Falcon peers in...

E3 is rapidly approaching, like in a matter of less than two months. All the big gaming companies will be on hand to present their latest and greatest, and wow the public with all sorts of new software to make them turn their heads and go ga-ga on pre-orders. One company in general that will see a lot of this attention is Nintendo, who will not only have plenty of announcements for Revolution on hand, but also their DS Lite, the rebuild of their current Nintendo DS handheld.

And that got me thinking...with the Revolution and the DS Lite on hand, what will become of the other game systems? Well, the GameCube will still receive mild love in the form of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, that's for sure, and that leaves...the Game Boy Micro/Advance. With Nintendo pushing closer to the next generation, will this system (or systems) be left in the dust, or does Nintendo have one last push in mind for this aging hardware?

Well, the Micro just saw a release, what, last year, so I don't think Nintendo will be that quick to abandon it. First off, expect to see some kind of price drop, like to a reasonable $80 or an even more reasonable $50. That'll help. Then expect a push in Nintendo's classic game library with a number of Players' Choice games, with the first wave arriving as soon as this early April with Yoshi's Island and Superstar Saga rarin' to go. And then you can consider some titles that are still hot and worthy pick-ups for the machine, including Gunstar Super Heroes and Drill Dozer.

So then, what can be done in the guise of new software? Plenty. Nintendo's still got access to the Pokemon license, so why not release a version of Pokemon Trozei for the system? Sure, regular controls will have to take over for touch-screen controls, but it can still be managed.

What about something along the lines of a new Wario Ware game? I don't mean the ridiculously over-the-top Twisted, but an all new chapter of the original Microgame$ that has two-player capability and maybe even some branching stuff into classic games? Hey, for that matter, why not Super Mario Bros. Deluxe II, with some kind of gathering of the Super Mario classics with bonus touches? Hey, it worked on the Game Boy Color years ago. Maybe too well. (I still remember playing it at work one day and the kid on the phone asked me if I was playing it. Hilarious.)

With Nintendo's classic library at hand and a number of games that can see budgetable release, I don't see why the Game Boy Advance and Micro couldn't have a viable future for at least another couple of years before the DS Lite eventually makes the drop to $100. Some might see it as a waste, but come on, some systems deserve to be phased out with style instead of having life support snapped out from underneath them. It'll be interesting to see what Nintendo has in mind.